


The Badgers, The Snake, The Eagle and The Lions

by Cosmoetic31



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F, F/M, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Prefects, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Hufflepuff, M/M, Murder, Murder Mystery, Ravenclaw, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29542134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmoetic31/pseuds/Cosmoetic31
Summary: The new sixth year students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are looking forward to a year of school surrounded by friends and peers. They can finally choose a select few subjects they enjoy to delve into, until things start going wrong. Students' bodies are piling up around the school and with no leads to who may be responsible, everyone is on high alert. Some sixth year prefects and their friends try to uncover the truth to the deaths. Is this the work of a serial killer? Two serial killers? Or is it simply a freak accident with no cause?
Kudos: 1





	1. Athena

**Author's Note:**

> So far I haven't written much of the fic. Sorry. I will try to add chapters as much as possible. Hopefully I will be able to add at least one everyday. The majority of the characters are completely new and made up, so I hope you like them :) I am also sorry for any mistakes in the writing, I am sure there will be many! Enjoy :)

1 – Athena  
The first of September. A day that Athena had heard many muggles dreaded. It’s true that she didn’t quite see the appeal of returning to school full of ordinary lessons. According to Ilias the only magic he had come across in a muggle school was the lengthening of time in a maths lesson. Athena had awkwardly laughed at that, not entirely sure how much of a joke it was meant to be. Athena’s book list had arrived mid-August and for a of supposedly fewer subjects, the volume of books stacked on her bed was unbelievable. Daunting just to look at. The promise of many late nights – or rather, early mornings – trying to complete a homework essay in time while also getting enough sleep to stay sane. With the added responsibility of prefect this year she doubted she’d have much time to enjoy her first year of N.E.W.Ts but then again who would enjoy the prospect of her whole future resting on a few exams that are waiting for her in two years’ time? She glanced up at the ornate jade clock that hung on the wall above her desk and whispered a word under her breath that she hoped her mother could not hear. It was time to leave, five minutes ago, but if she hurried up, she may only be an hour late. Without the tiniest bit of care, she threw her books into her trunk, hesitated for a moment while trying to decide whether to check on said books, and then closed the lid, sitting on it so that everything would be compressed enough to close the latch. She was of age to do magic now but, due to many years living without its constant benefit, she never seemed to think to use it until it was too late, like after struggling with her unnecessarily large trunk down the ridiculously narrow staircase that led straight to her room on the top floor from the kitchen, handy in an argument as it was a quick way to storm out but not so helpful when it came to carrying things. She never understood why they couldn’t just spell her case to be the size of a very fashionable, small handbag, just with a whole lot more room inside but she supposed there must be a reason so she never brought it up for fear of embarrassment. Her mother was waiting by the door the led into the hallway with a look of boredom that subtly turned to a dull shock when she saw Athena’s outfit.  
“Interesting outfit choice, darling.” Her mother had that tone a mother tends to take on when she is politely disapproving of an outfit choice or action.  
“Well, if I’m going to be stuck on a train for the next nine hours, which I will be, I am not going to be sitting there in a cocktail dress and heels.”  
“No, but jeans would be nice. How are you going to look patrolling the corridor with the other prefects in jogging bottoms and a hoody that is about three sizes too big for you?”  
“comfy.”  
No more was said on the fashion choices that Athena had made and judging by the fact that she was the one wearing the outfit she didn’t think it was anyone else’s concern. On top of that, she had only just woken up and there was no way you would get her in jeans before 9 AM, that is unreasonable, plus it meant she could easily get an extra forty-minute sleep in the car.  
The journey was short but the nap was worth it if only for the nerves. Her new responsibilities were daunting enough without the prospect that this year would be so much more grilling than the last. Usually, the prefects would have been chosen for Athena’s year group last year, and they were, but apparently the Slytherin girl had given up her duties. Athena didn’t know why; she just knew that she was the replacement. The previous girl was Efa Selwyn, a pureblood witch from one of the sacred twenty-eight families. They fell out of favour with the majority of the wizarding community after the Second Wizarding War due to their loyalties, and ever since it seemed that Efa had been working as hard as she could to do well; whether it was so she could break the ties with her family or simply to excel in school, Athena didn’t know. Either way, Athena had guessed that was the reason she gave up her prefect duties, to focus on her N.E.W.Ts.  



	2. Ilias

2 – Ilias  
Ilias glimpsed Athena through the crowd at King’s Cross Station. About time he thought with an aggression he hadn’t experienced before. He didn’t like it.   
“Oh, Wise One!” he yelled over the clamour of voices ricocheting off every surface in the vast hall of the station. A few heads turned his way, each wearing a slightly more confused expression than last. He didn’t like the attention but he didn’t hate it either. It did make him want to turn himself inside out just to avoid the persistent stares but he could refrain from apparating into a quiet alleyway and dying of embarrassment, so it wasn’t the end of the world.  
“There’s my favourite badger,” she said in a voice of cyanide but with a smile of sugar.   
“There is your only friend who is in Hufflepuff, and therefore your only ‘badger’, serpent.” That new frustration rose in him again but he knew it was all in jest. He hadn’t seen Athena in two months and her brown eyes still had that thread of green running throughout them, maybe even more so now than back in July. The summer sun seemed to bleached parts of her hair too. The long hickory waves had an amber-caramel colour running throughout it. She was still as pale as a sheet though. The used to joke that she was a vampire, like from the stories Ilias’ mother had told him on Halloween every year until his unexpected letter came on his eleventh birthday. He was lucky that his parents didn’t care that he wasn’t ‘normal’ but it did make Halloween awkward. When the children of the neighbourhood would dress up as witches and wizards, his mother didn’t know how to act. She became flustered and pre-occupied, but the sudden realisation that your childhood fairy tales held some truth, no matter how small, must have been a shock, so Ilias ignored it.   
“Ilias Economos, do I have to say your name again. Hello, Mr Badger?”  
Ilias looked up to see Athena standing right next to Harriet.   
“And he is responsive!” Athena said rather dramatically, making a large bowing gesture in Ilias’ direction.  
“Harri, where have you been? We have walked around this cursed station twice already.”   
“I’m surprised you noticed, off in your own little world,” Athena beamed. She was happy to see Harriet again, that was obvious, but she seemed interested in something else on her-  
“A prefect badge? How in Merlin’s name did you swindle that? McGonagall keeps those under lock and key in her office and last time I checked, alohomora did not work.” Harriet remarked in disbelief.  
“You tried to get into McGonagall’s office drawers? You are more daring than I give you credit for, my dear Harri,” Athena spoke almost condescendingly.  
“No, of course I didn’t, but the headmistress wouldn’t just leave her drawers practically unlocked. We learnt alohomora in second year.” Harriet uttered miserably.  
“I knew you were a good little girl.” Athena said as she produced a small paper envelope with green ink addressed to herself. It contained the ‘rules one must follow in order to become a prefect’ in slanted, perfect writing, Slughorn’s writing. He was ‘personally inviting her to replace Efa Selwyn as the newest, female prefect of Slytherin house’.   
“Nice, you won’t get left behind now when we board the train or go to meetings.”  
“Oh Harriet, I never missed out on anything. You should know that my now. Talking of the train, why did we get here so early? I was panicked I’d be late to meeting you guys but the train isn’t here for another hour! Whose idea was it to meet at 9 AM?”  
“Let’s just get breakfast, the train will be here before we know it.”  
“As you say, little badger.”   
Athena always spoke in a condescending manner. One such that it seemed she thought herself far better than Harriet or Ilias but he knew that wasn’t the case. Athena wasn’t mean or rude like she came across to be, she just liked to make fun of the evil Slytherin stereotype. After an hour or so she’ll drop the charade and be herself again, the Athena that Ilias had become friends with on the train on the way to second year when he was forced to share a compartment with an intriguing Slytherin girl, a timid Ravenclaw (until you got to know her), three rather loud, slightly annoying Gryffindor boys and another Hufflepuff, a girl, that Ilias hadn’t seen before. He later found out that one of the Gryffindor boys had been James Sirius Potter, but that didn’t bother him too much, just made him slightly embarrassed at the glares he shot in James’ direction in disapproval of his rowdy behaviour.   
Eventually, the three of them found a nice-looking café that was built into a small section of the wall and they sat down around a circular wooden table.


	3. Harriet

3 – Harriet  
They sat down, ordered three coffees (although Harriet wasn’t too fond of coffee) and a pastry selection to share between them. The waitress offered them a kind smile that only slightly reached her eyes, then disappeared into the café. Why they chose to sit out in front of the little coffee shop, Harriet didn’t know, but she quite enjoyed watching the people hurrying to their trains. She liked to guess at their destination.  
“So, boring, generic question, I know, but how was everyone’s summer?” Athena asked in a quiet voice. She seemed to be finding this little reunion quite tedious.   
“Average.” replied Ilias.   
“Rather intriguing,” Harriet started, “I visited my aunt down in Cornwall and we went surfing whenever there were waves enough to surf on. It was nice. Did you do anything wild and interesting?”   
“Just the usual; summer fling on a beach, island in the Mediterranean…” her voices drifted from the sentence in an elaborate show of reminiscing over a dreamy holiday. She wore a daring smile as she let the other two fill the rest of the summer’s activities by themselves. The waitress returned with their order. Harriet noticed that she looked slightly unnerved by their presence and swiftly and silently, she left them to their breakfast. The three of them continued laughing and catching up on all the things they had missed over the summer until Ilias reminded them of the benefit of Athena’s new title as prefect, they wouldn’t have to leave her when the boarded the train.   
“That was the only time I was free from you.” she said it viciously, but they both knew she was joking. Well, actually Harriet was slightly worried that she wasn’t joking until she broke out into that large grin that seemed to trap anybody’s within a three-meter radius. Time passed quickly after that. Laughter rose from their table in waves, then broke into comfortable silences that stretched on, but it never felt like they lasted too long. Eventually Harriet noticed the time, it was nearly 11 AM and they were nowhere near platform nine, or ten for that matter. Harriet went to say something, but an alarm in Ilias’ pocket went off and ha and Athena rose in a panicked unison. Obviously they had planned to already be running at the wall when that alarm went off. It was a hurried journey to reach the platform and their pace seemed to lie somewhere between a walk and a jog. With the luggage trolleys they had acquired as they left the café it was hard to move much faster but they made it to platform 9¾ with five minutes to spare. The journey through the wall was smooth, as always, and cautious. Platform nine and ten weren’t as busy as they usually were, so it was a slight gamble to see whether they would be seen, but now they were here. Athena had never done prefect duty on the train, or anywhere, before so they filled her in on what to do as they made their way to the prefects’ cabin, dropping their bags off in an empty one before entering. Once inside they grouped together with the other prefects from their houses. The three of them said a rushed hello to Thomas Killborough, the male, sixth year Gryffindor prefect, and Occidere Farley, his female counterpart. Harriet gave the other Ravenclaws a happy wave and they set off together down the train’s corridor to watch over the other students and to check that everyone boarded safely.


	4. Athena

4 – Athena  
The explanation of Athena’s new prefect-hood was almost the most boring thing she had ever had to sit through, second only to Professor CithbertBinns’ history of magic classes. While she patrolled the corridors, she was forced to listen to Esther drone on about the ‘honour’ of being a prefect and the ‘responsibility to save the children of Hogwarts from mayhem’. Athena saw it more as glorified babysitting that she didn’t get paid for, but she was grateful for the opportunity listened respectfully. After a long half hour of patrol, Athena settled into the compartment she had left her luggage in when she boarded the train. The others were already waiting there for her.   
“How was first duty?” Ilias asked in a tone of genuine interest. “Ether looked dumbstruck when you turned up, I thought he was going to confess his undying love to right then and there.” he laughed, but Athena could tell it wasn’t genuine. She replied with a small shrug and sat down next to Harriet.  
“So, prefect now, huh? Jena wouldn’t believe Occidere and I when we told her, and here I was thinking that Hufflepuffs were meant to be loyal and trusting.” Thomas said with a wide, teeth baring smile in Jena’s direction. She scowled at him and threw a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet at him, which he caught with ease. Thomas was a chaser on the Gryffindor quidditch team, and he never let you forget it. Every move he made seemed precisely calculated and executed in the most efficient way.   
“You look comfortable.” Jena said with a sneer. She never really fit into the Hufflepuff stereotype and it had always baffled Athena that she wasn’t placed into either Ravenclaw, due to her enthusiastic dedication to her studies, or Slytherin, as she always seemed to want the upper hand on everyone who gave her their attention.   
“That’s what I was going for.” Athena replied in a show of dignity. She wouldn’t be put down on her first day back and as a prefect (although that didn’t really make a difference). She was cosy in her oversized tracksuit and she guessed that Jena wasn’t in her colourful wardrobe choice. She was more fashionable than Athena could ever wish to be, but comfort was key where she was concerned.   
The majority of the train journey passed in a blur of summer stories and snide remarks which were usually met with a short but stern ‘Jen’ from Ilias. Occidere excelled when it came to retelling stories and however much of the story Athena suspected she had exaggerated, Occidere still kept the whole cabin drawn in and high in suspense. About four hours into the journey the lady with the trolley of sweets appeared at the cabin entrance. Thomas and Harriet’s eyes lit up and Ilias was dying to buy as much food as he could. He was born to a pair of muggle teachers and always referred to these specific sweets as ‘magic food’ and Athena had always found that amusing. She watched him open the chocolate frog box and light up at the card he found inside, Athena couldn’t make out who he had got. He looked up and caught her staring.  
“What,” he said in mock annoyance, “I may be sixteen, but you are never too old to get excited over chocolate frog cards.”   
Athena smiled at that and gave her head a slightly entertained shake. He was right of course, but she would never let him know that. He returned her grin and her eyes drifted to the window to watch the passing world. Before Athena knew it, Ether was at the compartment door. His blonde hair had been messed up slightly, obviously while he was putting on his robes, and his brown eyes seemed black in the natural light drifting from the windows.  
“You aren’t even dressed yet!” he seemed genuinely concerned at this fact and went on to say, “The students will be disembarking in under an hour, we have to be ready to aid them off the train, especially the first years.”  
Athena did not take his tone lightly, and neither did the others, so they all started to shimmy on their robes in the cramped compartment that should not have housed all six of them. After multiple minor collisions with the people around her, Athena joined Ether to carry out their duties and remind the other students to prepare themselves. Eventually, the other prefects joined them. Ilias stood with a Hufflepuff girl that Athena didn’t know at the back end of the train and Harriet stood with a Ravenclaw boy at the front. Positioned a quarter of the way down from Ilias were Thomas and Occidere and three quarters of the way down, stood Athena and Ether. Jena stayed in the cabin even though Thomas and Occidere had offered to let her stand with them. Athena wasn’t feeling so kind and Jena turned the offer down anyway, probably out of spite, but Athena thought that the cause wasn’t worth the breath she’d waste asking the question. After the train ground to a halt, the corridor swarmed with children, all loud and all excited. The majority of the upper years had decided to wait out the initial chaos in their cabins so the glorified babysitting job was fully living up to its potential for being Hell. The fifth-year prefects had the job of herding the children into the platform and making sure no one was left behind, at least Athena only had to stand there and shout ‘calm down’ a couple hundred times. Athena was thankful that she got to miss last year’s prefect responsibilities and this feeling only grew when she stepped out onto the overcrowded platform of Hogsmeade station. She was also thankful that the thestral drawn carriages moved swiftly and did not travel over the water that the first year’s boats did. Athena despised swimming and she hated risking a possible fall into a lake. After a longer while than she would have liked, she stepped into the familiar entrance all of the Hogwarts castle.  
“We are home.” she muttered under her breath but none of her surrounding friends seemed to notice the falling of her harsh charade.


	5. Jena

5 – Jena  
Athena was saying something under her breath. Jena couldn’t make out what she was saying but she suspected it was something sentimental or philosophical. That’s what Athena was like, and in many ways, Jena envied her for it. The hall had its usual atmosphere on the first night back. Everyone was buzzing with excitement for the coming term, and of course there was the sorting hat’s song, Jena’s personal highlight of the evening. The group split up to go to their separate tables and Jena followed Ilias, slightly begrudgingly, over to the Hufflepuff table. She wasn’t exactly looking forward to listening to him drone on about Athena and her new prefect-hood as if she were the only prefect to have ever walked the Hogwarts halls. Silently, Jena wished that Peeves would make an appearance and play some sort of joke that would relieve Ilias of his voice, but she was trying not to be mean this year, and Peeves was banned from the great hall, especially during the feast of the first night back, however, Jena still had the suspicion that this fact wouldn’t stop him trying to cause some mayhem. As the thought to team up with the poltergeist entered her mind, McGonagall cleared her throat and stepped up to the eagle shaped podium with a kind smile. She welcomed everyone back and explained the long list of Filch’s new rules which absolutely no one ever follows, and then positioned the three-legged stool in front of the staff table. Hagrid mad his way to sit at his seat and the sorting hat ceremony began with a song that would play relentlessly inside Jena’s head for the next two days. Slytherin, Slytherin, Gryffindor, three Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw and then Jena lost count, drifting into a zoned-out stare at the enchanted ceiling and the clouds swirling amongst the black sky which was dotted with tiny white stars. Jena probably could have tried to find constellations within the sheet of night but astronomy was never her strong point and she has visited the astronomy tower a grand total of two times, once to wait for Thomas to finish his exam and once to pick a small fight with Athena when she was bored one Tuesday afternoon. Then the food appeared. Stacks of different roast meats, Yorkshire puddings (Jena’s favourite) and roast potatoes, vegetables and about three large jugs of pumpkin juice that refilled themselves. She stacked her plate full of everything within reach, except the roasted parsnips, and covered it all in a nice lake of gravy.   
“Hungry?” Stephen asked. He was another Hufflepuff boy that Jena used to take herbology with.  
“mhm,” she replied with a mouthful of gravy-soaked Yorkshire pudding.  
She didn’t exactly care if he thought her table manners lacked, she was enjoying her dinner. The dessert was just as enjoyable. Some sort of pie that Jena didn’t bother finding out the flavour of. I may have to sneak down to the kitchen later and get some more she thought as she finished the last piece on her plate and the remainder of the food disappeared. She was certain they would all be released to their dormitories soon and she had to devise a plan to get up to Gryffindor tower as that is where they all planned to meet for their usual game of veritaserum truth or dare/never have I ever with fire whiskey. They had come up with the idea pf the hybrid drinking game back fourth year when they saw some seventh years playing never have I ever by the quidditch pitch during the summer term and since then it has been a tradition to play it at the beginning of each term. They decided to meet in the Gryffindor common room as it would be the easiest to hide in. Everybody seemed far too excited to be sorted into Gryffindor house as that was the house of the famous Harry Potter and his friends Hermione and Ron. It would be easy to sneak in using the pomp and ceremony of first years as a cover.


	6. Athena

6 – Athena   
Athena arrived at the portrait hole first, shrouded by a group of third year Gryffindors who, by now, were well accustomed to the proceedings of the first night back, so they made a swift return to their common room. Athena wasn’t tall, but she was taller than these students, resulting in her taking an awkward half-standing, half-crouching position among the crowd until she made it to the entrance. A prefect said a quick ‘memento mori’ rather morbid Athena thought, and she climbed inside, well, it was more of a fall. She took up a position on the carpet next to a fire. She gained a few confused looks while waiting there alone in her Slytherin robes but surprisingly, despite the alleged bravery all Gryffindors possessed, no one asked her what she was doing. She watched as year group after year group flowed through the doors in a stream of noise. She was thankful that she had been relieved of her ushering duties by Slughorn. She was one of his favourites due to her skill at potions and her uncle. She was a proud member of the Slug Club and not just because it boosted her status with the professor, she actually quite enjoyed their dinners. Slughorn had said that it was the first day back and her first day as prefect, so he gave her the night off. She suspected it was because she had potions first thing tomorrow and he wanted her awake and alert so she could show off in front of his class. He probably wanted her to set a standard for the other sixth years, she wasn’t looking forward to it. It may not be obvious due to her harsh exterior, but she hated to show off.   
“You got here quick.” A voice said softly.  
It was Ilias, accompanied by Jena and she had never been so happy to see her.  
“How long have you been her?” Jena asked.  
“About forty-minutes I would say.”  
“Damn, well, we are here now,” Ilias said as he went to sit beside her.  
Just then, the rest of the group showed up with a large bottle of fire whiskey and Athena held up her bag with the six measures of veritaserum that she brewed over the summer holidays in it. Enough to last one hour each.   
“Well, come on then,” Thomas spoke with a false sense of nonchalance that didn’t quite hid his excitement.   
The six of them moved to the sofa, pulling up armchairs so that they could all fit around the low wooden table that stood in the middle of their group. Ilias, Athena and Occidere took the sofa (it was a little cramped), while Thomas and Jena took an armchair each, leaving Harriet to sit on the floor, leaning in the base of Jena’s armchair. Athena handed out the small bottles of clear liquid and said, “down the hatch.”  
Ilias and Thomas found this hilarious and almost choked on their potion due to laughter. Athena made a face of mock offense, the way she spoke was not funny. Jena got out a class for each of them. The glasses resemble butter beer steins but she poured them each a generous measure of fire whiskey and cast a spell to make it look like innocent butter beer. Athena couldn’t quite make out the words she used. Harriet cast muffliato and they got to playing the game.   
“Never have I ever contemplated killing someone from our group,” Thomas said in an ominous voice.   
“Woah, dramatic there, brave lion,” Jena said mockingly as she took a drink.  
Athena and Occidere also drank, joined by a small sip from Thomas.  
“you are meant to come up with things you haven’t done,” Ilias said, jokingly as though he was talking to a toddler.  
They went round and asked their truth questions to those who had taken a drink and then continued to play in the order they always do. At some point within the next hour, Athena had rested her head on Ilias’ shoulder and the others casted suspicious glances in their direction. Eventually the hour was up and Athena pulled out six more hour-sized doses of veritaserum.   
“Care for another round?”  
They all grabbed greedily for the bottles and Jena poured out more fire whiskey, casting her unknown spell.   
“Okay, me first,” Jena said, “never have I ever snuck out.”  
“Oh, come on,” a unified grumble came from the group and everyone, including Jena, drank.  
“What was the point in that?” Athena asked, annoyance seeping into her voice.  
“I,” Jena spoke slightly vindictively, “wanted to ask you who the mysterious summer fling was, you told us all about him on the train so it is only fair.”  
Athena cast a glance to Ilias.  
“No!” Harriet gasped in shock.  
Athena nodded slowly, with a grin. So did Ilias.  
“You-“ but Occidere was cut off as someone burst, quickly and noisily through the portrait hole.


	7. Occidere

7 – Occidere   
“Come with me! All of you! NOW!” McGonagall’s rang through the common room in a hot wave of rage.  
When she entered, her face turned from genuine shock to pure scorn and seething anger. The group hastily got up, thankful that Jena had cast the spell on the fire whiskey, and silently followed their headmistress back through the portrait hole, flanked by the other heads of the other houses. Flitwick looked growingly worried and Sprout just seemed outright scared, while Slughorn seemed to where a more stoic and determined to resolve this issue that has arisen. Occidere couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to them all, as they are prefects who had just been caught breaking one of the most fundamental rules of the school, and drinking but they didn’t know about that, yet.  
“Shhhit,” Athena whispered, slurring her sh slightly, but that could have been due to a large realisation rather than intoxication. Occidere hoped so.  
“What?” Ilias asked.  
“We still have about thirty-seven minutes of veritaserum left in our system,” she answered more loudly than she’d aimed for. Occidere knew, for a fact, that that was the fire whiskey talking.  
To the extreme luck of the group, none of the surrounding professors hear this realisation and they continued, hurriedly, through the halls of Hogwarts and towards McGonagall’s office, maybe Athena had snuck some Felix Felicis in their veritaserum as well, Occidere doubted it.  
“Juniper,” McGonagall said and the great, stone gargoyle jumped out the way.  
Before she knew it, Occidere was standing at the top of the spiral staircase, staring at the entrance to McGonagall’s office. Not only did she have to face the headmistress in there, but also all the past headmasters and headmistresses who were permanently watching from their individual spaces on the walls.   
“Prefects with me please, Jena wait outside.”  
By the look on Jena’s face, she hated that she was now the only non-prefect in their group, her jealousy was almost tangible. An odd choice for a Hufflepuff Occidere thought. The five prefects walked into the office and were alone with McGonagall for all of thirty seconds before the other three sixth year prefects walked in, looking confused and frightened. Behind them, the eight fifth year prefects followed, then came the head boy and girl who seemed to be calming a second year Ravenclaw down. A peculiar gathering for the first night back. McGonagall took a breath, as though to start a long lecture.  
“You are probably wondering why I gathered you all here and aside from the unfortunate behaviour of five of our trusted prefects, who were caught not only breaking curfew, but huddled together in the cosy Gryffindor common room.”  
That earnt their group a glare from McGonagall and, subsequently, a look of hatred from the ither prefects in the room.  
“There has been, what we hope to have been a grave accident, but nonetheless I will get to the point. A student was found dead in the Ravenclaw tower by this young girl. The student, by the name of Hannah Flotts, died in very suspicious circumstances. I do not,” she emphasised those words, “want any of you to take this matter into their own hands. I have merely called you all here to warn you and to tell you to be on high alert. This could be serious. Now, we will meet for meetings every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and 7 PM and I expect all of you to be there. Now, off to bed. Except for you five.” She said in the way a mother talks her misbehaving toddler, “and send Jena in.” that was aimed at professor Sprout was making her way out the door of the office.  
Jena trudged in with her head down, almost in shame but Occidere knew that Jena didn’t feel shame.   
“Care to explain yourselves?!” although that was a perfectly normal question, McGonagall used as more of a statement. “I should be absolutely furious with you!”  
“wait, you aren’t?” Athena laughed. She never knew when to keep her mouth shut.  
“As a matter of fact, your reckless activities bought you all together, making it easier to find you in a hurry and it means you are the only people in this castle with a confirmed alibi. Hannah was found, unconscious but alive, at just past midnight and I crashed your little party at quarter past. There is no way you could have got to the common room unseen in that time. Especially in your state.”  
She knew.  
“I also happen to know you have veritaserum in your system (side note: Athena, learn to whisper quietly when intoxicated, or better yet, don’t get intoxicated) and as none of you seem to be skilled legilimens, and if one of you were, there is no way you all could be, I will ask this of all of you, how long were you in that common room?”  
“From about ten-forty until you found us,” they all answered in a near unison mash of voices.  
“That’s what I thought, you are to meet me in this office on Saturdays at four, no earlier, no later. You are the only trustworthy people in this castle.”  
“That was cliché.” Jena sneered, it seemed she didn’t know when to shut up, either.  
“I should strip you of your badges and possibly expel you, but I know you and your antics so I’ll give you a pass.”  
“Always did love the troublemakers. Minerva.” Athena exclaimed with a sense of regality as she glided out the room.   
“Professor McGonagall!” the headmistress called after her, but she had already left, leaving McGonagall content rather than irritated.


End file.
